The United States Navy's Sea,
Air, Land Teams, commonly known as the U.S. Navy SEALs, are the U.S. Navy's principal special operations force and a part of the Naval
Special Warfare Command (NSWC) and SOCOM.

"SEAL" is always capitalized in reference to members of the Naval Special Warfare community. The acronym is derived from their capacity to operate at sea, in the air, and on land. In the
War on Terror, SEALs have been utilized almost exclusively for land-based operations, including Direct Action,
Hostage Rescue, Counter
Terrorism, Special Reconnaissance, Unconventional Warfare, manhunts and Foreign internal defense operations. SEALs are male members of the United States
Navy. An exchange program with the Coast Guard, which graduated three Coast Guardsmen as SEALs, was suspended in 2011.

The CIA's highly secretive Special Activities Division (SAD) and more specifically its elite Special Operations Group (SOG) recruits operators from the SEAL
Teams. Joint Navy SEALs and CIA operations go back to the famed MACV-SOG during the
Vietnam War. This cooperation still exists today and is seen in the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan, and in the finding and killing of Osama bin Laden in
Pakistan.